Utah Flight Training Consortium

What is a Flight Training Consortium?

Welcome to the Utah Flight Training
Consortium. This web page has been created as one of the first steps taken by representatives
of several flight schools in the state of Utah to share ideas and best
practices in order to maintain an open dialogue regarding safety. This article
has been written to give an overview of this organizations purpose and intent
regarding safety sharing.

As a pilot shortage that has been
written about and theorized for a decade is actually upon us we felt that
working together to improve safety and reduce accidents was of interest to us
all. We have begun to see increased enrollments in pilot training programs as
airlines and other employers have advertised hiring bonuses and subsidized
training costs as well as increased starting pay. With this increase in
training comes a natural increase in the number of instructors and aircraft
that will be required to train this growing student pilot population. As
airspace has been reevaluated for commercial operations under the FAA NextGen
plan, we as aviation training organizations need to consider the impact this
additional training will have on the airspace near our schools which involves
not only us, but also local pilots and other general aviation fliers.

Beginning in January of 2017,
representatives from many of the flight schools in the state have met monthly
to discuss which areas of safety should receive attention, and be shared among
this group. We decided that any information which could benefit training
facilities in the area as well as the general flying public could be shared on
a web site that would maintain many of the safety products that come as a
result of this group. The first product this group has come together on is an interactive
practice area map for these schools that can be viewed on line. This map allows
users to easily identify airspace used by each flight school, and brings about
an extra degree of situational awareness. Transient pilots can utilize this
information to ensure they are aware of these areas and the frequencies that
schools use to coordinate their utilization. This map will be continually
updated as schools work together to implement changes based on safety
discussions and recommendations.

As far as I know this is the first
time that flight schools including the major universities in the state have
come together as safety representatives in order to improve the safety culture
in our state. If you wish to be a part of this group, please contact us. We
welcome your participation and input. We look forward to sharing anything which
will improve aviation safety.